The murder of 14 year-old schoolgirl Jodi Jones near Edinburgh on 30 June 2003

[nugnug]

oh dident the record stick to it then.

[nugnug]

i dont think the sun will cover this story becouse of there somewhat complicated relshanship with the proscuter.

witch of course i will not delve into any further.

[OnceSaid]

oh dident the record stick to it then.

No, and I was so pleased with their article on Friday, I went out and bought a copy of the DR today. Fairs Fair, I thought.  Wish I hadnt now    It was a silly wee article but it managed to undo the good from yesterday.

Anyway what was interesting for me, and stupid for them was directly under that there was an article about polygraphs and a call for them to be introduced for sex offenders in Scotland.
The headline was FORCE BEASTS TO TAKE A LIE DETECTOR TEST, (slightly different from the online version but the content is the same).

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/07/21/freed-sex-beasts-should-be-made-to-take-lie-detector-tests-say-tories-86908-23910790/

Luke Mitchell didnt need forced, he wanted to take one and he happily took the test and passed, as did his mother.   If the use of polygraphs and the results are good enough to be used to protect the public from serious sex offenders then they should be good enough for innocent people trying to fight for their freedom and be admissable in court alongside their other evidence.
 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/07/21/freed-sex-beasts-should-be-made-to-take-lie-detector-tests-say-tories-86908-23910790/ 

[nugnug]

scotish tories say it is that all 4 of them.

[susan]

Morning nugnug  I thought Scotland had more Panda's than Conservative MP's

[sandra L]

Lol!

I did actually laugh when I saw the Record - as nugnug and Oncesaid have already posted, the story about Luke was at the top of the page, the story about lie detectors and sex offenders was directly underneath, and to the left, was a little bit telling us all about how the Record prides itself on its honest and fair reporting! Almost choked on my coffee!

How confused must their readers be? Oh, sorry, I forgot, they were the only paper that didn't report on Luke and Corinne's lie detector tests - their readers wouldn't realise there was a contradiction by having the two stories on the same page.

[susan]

Morning sandra L  Well put I would never describe The Daily Record of giving a balanced fair view of anything it is ok for wrapping fish suppers in.

[sandra L]

Morning, Susan. I wrote to them via their "For the Record" section which promises to correct mistakes, etc - they had printed some rubbish about Luke's case. Didn't even get an acknowlegement.

Corinne called them up - they'd made up a ridiculous story about Luke and Corinne having a fight in the prison (like they could!!!) - Corinne said, "It never happened - you can check with the prison if you don't believe me." Response from the Record - I kid you not - "We got it from a reliable source."

How do you deal with that? They've got the person the story is about, telling them it didn't happen, offering them proof that it didn't happen, but they prefer to trust the person who made the story up in the first place as "reliable."

[susan]

Hi sandra L  they are not interested in truth just selling their paper and I don't think they are selling many. At one time The Daily Record was thee paper in Scotland but that's not the case now.

[sandra L]

It's been very frustrating over the years, since nearly all of the papers took a negative stance in this case. This last year or so has seen a slow but steady turnaround - the headlines have gradually become less strident, some of the papers have taken to reporting the facts (and calling up to check they've got it right) - all in all, it's been really encouraging.

I've said many times, it's not just the legal process we need to turn around - Luke was tried in the court of public opinion as well - getting people talking about cases of MoJ is a way of letting the wider public know exactly what goes on, and how easily it could be any one of us.

I realise, of course, that changing public opinion isn't going to get Luke or ay of the others home, but maybe, just maybe, enough people will become angry at what is being done in their names, to demand that the system be cleaned up - that way, we might just help prevent future MoJs. Got to be worth a try anyway.

[Margot]

Your doing an absolutely wonderful job Sandra.

[OnceSaid]

It's been very frustrating over the years, since nearly all of the papers took a negative stance in this case. This last year or so has seen a slow but steady turnaround - the headlines have gradually become less strident, some of the papers have taken to reporting the facts (and calling up to check they've got it right) - all in all, it's been really encouraging.

I've said many times, it's not just the legal process we need to turn around - Luke was tried in the court of public opinion as well - getting people talking about cases of MoJ is a way of letting the wider public know exactly what goes on, and how easily it could be any one of us.
I realise, of course, that changing public opinion isn't going to get Luke or ay of the others home, but maybe, just maybe, enough people will become angry at what is being done in their names, to demand that the system be cleaned up - that way, we might just help prevent future MoJs. Got to be worth a try anyway.

Hi Sandra, there has been quite a lot going on in Scotland lately with different cases being reported about in the press or spoken about on miscarriage of justice public forums, surely the public reading about everything that has been going on cant continue to bury their heads in the sand.  There was the Nat Fraser retrial for instance.  Now whether people thought he was innocent or guilty or had no opinion either way, the whole case has been a disaster from beginning to end and threw up a lot of concerns to at least get the public thinking, I would have thought.  Then there is the guy Sean Toals his case which is on your site.  Nearly a six month wait on a decision from the appeal court, now that is just unbelievable considering all the information that is known relating to the case. Willie Gage he was another guy, who lost his appeal not that long ago, that sounds like another farce of a case, then there is Luke Mitchells case which is an another embaressment for the justice system in Scotland but it should be more than that, Scottish people should be embaressed that this sort of thing is going on and that innocent people are being locked away.  I know there is a lot more but those I mentioned are ones that I have read about in recent months in the press.  If it wasnt for the likes of yourself, forums like this and families and friends of the prisoner who has suffered a miscarriage of justice, then these people and many many others would be locked up and forgotton about. 

I think that the internet is a great way of highlighting miscarriage of justice cases but not everyone follows the cases online so it would be great if the press took more interest in people who claim to have suffered a miscarriage of justice.

I dont know whether you have read this thread or not.  If there is any interest in Lukes case, and members were looking for factual information would you be able to contribute to this thread, even just by correcting any errors?  I know its a big ask and it would be easier if members were members on Lukes site/caseblog then you wouldnt need to go between the two, but if you had the time, and their was interest perhaps we could start a new thread which would mean the information provided from the beginning was accurate?  I totally understand if you do not have the time, but I just thought it may be an idea and since you were on I thought theres no harm in asking. 

[nugnug]

well the luke Mitchell case will certainly come back to hount them i think.

[sandra L]

Oncesaid, I haven't read this thread from the beginning, simply because I haven't had time. I don't often have time to keep up with other forums, but I'm quite happy to contribute where I can. Following the completion of two rather large projects in the last month  , I've had a little more free time, although there's not telling how long that will last.

The only thing I would say is, if it gets to the stupid stage that we've all seen so many times before, and disruptive posters twist what's posted, or ignore it and continue to post rubbish, I wouldn't have the time (or inclination, to be honest) to keep correcting it.

I have noticed the admin/mods here do seem to act pretty quickly when the troublemakers appear, and, like WAP, the genuine posters are quite adept at ignoring them, so it's something that I think could be done sensibly - the only problem I foresee is lack of time on my part.

Nugnug, I think that they genuinely thought much of what went on in the Luke Mitchell case would never see the light of day (and those who thought it might knew it would take so long, they'd be retired off with nice fat pensions by the time it did). I certainly didn't think, back then, that I'd still be doing this more than nine years later. It's been nipping at their ankles right from the beginning - all going well, it's just about to bite a large chunk out of a number of bottoms!

[OnceSaid]

Could I ask that members who are curious about this case to read the following link, then comment on this thread if delving deeper into it and discussing the case in more detail is something you would be interested in doing.  This was a simple case made complex by Lothian and Borders police, IMO.

caseblog.wronglyaccusedperson.org.uk/luke-mitchell-is-innocent/

This site was made available on the 14th April 2010 with Luke's permission and is his official website.